Gatecrasher Minus a Tooth, Bouncer in Court

A man was seen sleeping Sunday afternoon behind White’s Liquors in Montauk until an East Hampton Marine Patrol officer came by. The man sat right up, saying that he wasn’t sleeping, he was just “waiting for the police to return my car keys.” His car, which had South Carolina plates, was parked a few yards away.
T. E. McMorrow

A Key West, Fla., man who is part of the security team at the Sloppy Tuna in Montauk is facing a felony charge of strangulation after a Sunday-night incident at the popular bar.

Andreas E. Gemellas stood handcuffed Monday morning for his arraignment before East Hampton Town Justice Catherine Cahill. Mr. Gemellas looks like an offensive lineman, but he spoke softly and had a gentle demeanor.

Following the midnight incident, according to town police, Mr. Gemellas told an officer he was working the door when Sean Gallen of Yonkers, N.Y., “came up and tried to get in.” There was a line outside the bar at the time. The bouncer told the man “he needed to wait in line,” the report says, but Mr. Gallen “slipped past him when he wasn’t looking.”

Mr. Gemellas told police he ran up to the gatecrasher “and grabbed him from behind to escort him out of the bar.” By the time police got to Mr. Gallen, he “had lacerations and scrapes to his forehead [and] nose, and was missing a front tooth.”

Although the report is heavily redacted, it appears that Mr. Gemellas told police “he had no intention of hurting him.”

Mr. Gallen was taken to Southampton Hospital for treatment, while police obtained a copy of a surveillance video from Sloppy Tuna, which has cameras throughout the facility. Police have relied on them in the past in making arrests.

Justice Cahill asked the bouncer how he came to travel from Key West to Montauk for a job.

“They imported you?” she asked.

“They invited me up last season,” he answered, adding that management was happy with his work and had him back this year.

The justice set bail at $1,000. Mr. Gemellas said he could make bail, but did not have the cash in the personal belongings police had stored for him.

“Hopefully, someone can show up and help you do that,” the justice said. Abby Monahan, the general manager of the nightspot, declined comment on the case.

Two men who were friends at Harvard were arrested early Sunday morning by the side of Montauk’s Memory Motel. Matthew W. Hull, 24, of New York City, and Alexander D. Roux, 23, of San Francisco, were standing under a spotlight, the report says, when a foot patrolman saw Mr. Hull holding a small, clear plastic bag with white powder in it. The officer interviewed the two men briefly. Both were said to be in possession of cocaine. They were searched after being charged and police reportedly discovered a second bag of the drug on Mr. Hull.

At their arraignment on Monday, Mr. Roux, facing a misdemeanor charge of possession, told Justice Cahill that he and his friends had a share house in Montauk. “It’s my first and only weekend here,” he said. His bail was set at $500.

Mr. Hull was facing a more serious charge, thanks to the combined weight of the cocaine in the two bags.

“Since this is a felony, the D.A. could present the facts to a grand jury for an indictment,” Justice Cahill said as she set bail at $1,000. She advised him to hire an attorney as soon as possible.

Another drug arrest outside the Memory was made after an officer spotted a man urinating in public. According to police, Nicholas P. Murphy, 23, of Brooklyn dropped a metal container down the back of his pants as he was being questioned. Police searched him and opened the container, which proved to contain various quantities of the prescription drugs Alprozolam, Temazepam, and Lubiprostone.

Mr. Murphy was charged with three counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance, as well as a health code violation for possession of a prescription drug outside of its proper container, and given a summons for public urination. He was released from the Montauk precinct stationhouse after posting $100 bail.

Across the street from the Memory, at the Point Bar, a slender Manhattan woman proved quite a handful for police at about 2 a.m. on Aug. 25. Abby J. Root, 31, who was said to be disputing a cab fare, was “extremely agitated and screaming obscenities,” the report says, adding that she appeared intoxicated.

As an officer tried to calm her down, she dropped her purse to the ground. It made “the sound of glass hitting the pavement,” police reported.

The officer picked up the purse, which had a glass beer stein in it, and put it on the roof of the taxi. This enraged the woman even more. She reached out, grabbed the purse, and swung it at one of the officers, striking him in the back, police said. The beer glass flew out of the bag and shattered on the ground.

Ms. Root continued to fight with officers, the report says. She kicked off her sandals, cutting her feet on the broken glass in the process. She was finally handcuffed, and taken 100 yards away to the precinct station.

She kept fighting as officers tried to tend to her wounds, before they finally placed her in the back of a squad car for the drive to Wainscott headquarters, charged with resisting arrest and physical harassment. The two officers in the car had to stop en route, in Amagansett; Ms. Root was said to be trying to kick out the back window.

She was belted into the seat, and a new charge of criminal mischief was added to her docket.

In court the next morning, she showed no anger, but cried off and on during the arraignment process. She told Justice Cahill she lived in Chelsea but was renting in Montauk.

The justice warned her that she was facing two misdemeanor charges, but, noting she had no prior record, released her without bail. She has an October return date in court.